Kompass AntiRa-Newsletter No 70, June 2018

 

Call for the We`ll Come United Parade at 29.9. in Hamburg +++ 6.-8. of June in Halle and Quedlinburg: JoG against IMK +++ 7.-15.6. in Berlin: Protestactions against the new law to suspend family reunification +++ 22. of June in Nuremberg: Education not deportation …Schoolstrike! +++ 30.6. in Hamburg: 5 years Lampedusa in Hamburg +++ 5.-8. Juli in Brandenburg: Summercamp of We`ll Come United; +++ Bulgaria: Free the Harmanli 21 +++ Central Mediterranean: Sea Watch Appeal against Italy +++ Western mediterranean sea: nearly 11.000 arrivals until Juni 2018 +++ Review: Goettingen-Conference for a big coalition of antiracism +++ Outlook: 29.9. in Hamburg: big We`ll Come United Parade; Transnational Social Strike meeting in November 2018 in Stockholm

Dear friends!

„Against deportation, exclusion and racist agitation – for freedom of movement and equal rights for all! We know already that September 29, 2018 will be the most beautiful day of the year. It will be our day. We are many, we are different and we struggle every day on our doorstep. We’ll all come together in September. We will come to Hamburg by car, train and bus. From villages and towns, from camps and shelters, from welcoming initiatives and aid organizations, from construction sites, schools and universities. With soundtrucks, performances, lyrics, music and carnival we’ll chase away the cold, the racism and the heartlessness from the streets of the city. Together we’ll draw a picture on the streets: the picture of our friendship, the picture of a diverse and fearless life in solidarity. When we move, the world moves! …“

These are the first sentences of the call for We`ll Come United 2018. More than 200 groups and networks are listed as first signatures and more support is welcomed. The route for the demonstration between St. Pauli and the port area is in the meanwhile registered, in the local medias it was already a topic. In the conference in Goettingen - with more than 300 participants „for a big coalition of antiracism“ - the parade in Hamburg was also the main common future mobilization. A summer camp in Brandenburg will be the next meeting point, while the first buses are booked. And everyone who is looking for materials or who is planning info-events, can contact the new opened swarming office.

Simultanously with the publication of this newsletter „youth without borders“ is protesting during the conference of the interior ministers in Halle and an alliance of initiatives is doing the same in Berlin against the new law to suspend the familyreunification. In countless places all over Germany and in Europe the struggle against deportations continues - against „Dublin“, but also against deportations to Afghanistan, Pakistan or to African countries. Thousands of people succeeded to cross the turkish-greek land border during last months and they go in direction of North. Many travelers use the new „Balkan-coast-route“ via Bosnia, hundreds of them camp out in parks in Sarajevo or Bihac and at the Croatian border they face illegal push backs of the EU border police. The total numbers of crossing the mediterranean sea decreased a lot in comparison to the last years, but still there are more than respective 10.000 people, who reached the european coasts through the main three routes within the first 5 months of 2018. Remarkable is, that the first time the same number of people made it between Morocco and Spain as in the aegean or in the central mediterranean sea. Up to date every day „Bozas“ - successful arrivals or rescue to Spain - are registered, often in very small plasticboats and with paddles, when the people, who are blocked by all other options, risk their lives to overcome the street of Gibraltar.

Recently a demonstrative graphic was published about the global development of border fences and walls. At the end of the 2nd world war only seven boundary walls have existed and in 1989, when the Berlin wall fall, it was 15. But the numbers jumped up until 2018 to 77, particularly in and around Europe. The mass-dying at sea and the countless human right violations at the many invisible - external and internal - borders of EU are not yet included. Death and suffering are the calculated, cruel parameter of deterrence of a racist border regime, which always had combined exclusion and exploitation. Bot no border last forever. And we will Keep on and on until all borders will fall.

In late May, a remarkably diverse group came together in Palermo. The WatchTheMed Alarm Phone had organised a two-day long meeting together with Leoluca Orlando, the mayor of the Sicilian capital city and a firm believer in the universal right to mobility. Besides the sea rescue organisations, those active along the migratory transit routes as well as places of arrival, such as the commissioner for migration from Barcelona, participated in the gathering. The intention was to create a counter-pole to the nationally- and supranationally driven deterrence policies, based on local practices, and carried in unison with progressive municipalities and civil society actors, in the spirit of the Charter of Palermo. The process is guided by the idea to exchange over and further develop practical interventions to work toward safe harbours, safe transit corridors and dignified places of arrival. The aim is to foster transnational corridors, and spaces of solidarity and disobedience, in the struggle against the injustices produced by the border regime. The meeting went promising and this new alliance will hopefully emerge soon as a new nodal point in the  fight for the freedom of movement and equal social rights for all.

The Kompass-Team